Miss Katherine walked into the classroom, a shocked look on her face. She whispered quietly to Miss Karen and I watched her face go from smiling to ashy and grim.
What’s going on?
Miss Karen calls Brooke and I over. A plane has flown into the World Trade Center. It is 9 AM ish on Sept. 11th 2001. We haven’t even had snack yet. The kids are quietly playing.
A plane has flown into the World Trade Center.
Miss Katherine is already back in the office listening to the radio. Trying to make sense of what we’re being told. It doesn’t take long until the reports come in that another plane has hit the other tower.
A plane. It must be some sort of mistake. But another, what is going on?
As the morning continues more reports come in. The Pentagon is hit. A plane has gone down in Pennsylvania.
Why can’t I get through to Wayne’s cell phone? Are Greg and Brian okay? How far is their apartment from the scene of this devastation?
We were just there. We were standing in the lobby of the World Trade Center contemplating what would be involved in eloping there. It was beautiful and now it’s fallen.
We’ve been attacked.
There’s no home field advantage anymore.
How will we ever feel safe??
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I wrote the above entry in my journal 5 years ago. My mind was flooded with questions and uneasiness. I like to think that today some of those questions have been answered and some of the uneasiness has subsided.
Today is not about a political blame-game of who knew what and when they knew it. It’s about remembering those who were lost. For remembering the valor of those who fought so hard to find the missing and save the trapped.
That list of names that I can hear in the background is not just a list. It’s people. Mommies, daddies, sons and daughters. Today I mourn with their families and with my fellow Americans.
I celebrate the lives they lived and sacrificed.
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